Forged in Ice extra chapter – Colour
by Veltzeh
Summary: Envy meets an odd person in Fort Briggs.


Colour

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**Author note:** Originally, the character introduced in this chapter was supposed to be a major side character in _Forged in Ice_, but I never got a chance to bring her in or figure out what to do with her because Shrike effectively filled all of her shoes.

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Envy and Shrike were passing the medical room. Envy happened to peek in through the open door and saw something that piqued its interest. There was a young, pale and white-haired woman lying on a bed and she was looking sullenly at her right automail arm that was in a state of disrepair. She had odd protection over her eyes: the right lens seemed to be transparent and the left not. However, the thing that Envy mainly noticed was that she was also missing two fingers from her left hand. Envy made a turn and walked into the room. It headed right next to the woman who turned to look at it. She seemed inquiring and slightly irritated.

Shrike looked questioningly after Envy and went after it, but stopped at the doorway after he saw who it went to talk to.

"That's some ugly automail right there!" said Envy and pointed at her right arm. Envy knew well that the arm looked like it did because it was being serviced, but Envy did not care. "But why don't you have any automail for your fingers? I'd think that if they can make a whole arm, they should be able to make a few fingers too! Your hand would look much better."

The pale woman looked incredulously at Envy. She was put off and surprised that it would just come and say such things to her. However, she had a strong personality and did not let that get to her even though she was irritated. "Do you have any idea how much it hurts to have automail attached? Before, when I didn't have any automail, I swore I'd have anything I was missing replaced but it hurts so much."

"Oh, I see. Well, I guess that's understandable," it said with a shrug. "Heh, you look rather pathetic, really. How'd you lose that much of your body anyway?"

She just stared at Envy. "Your tact is horrible, you know that?"

"Would you like me to cry and snivel about your misfortune? I'm not in the mood right now."

Her gaze turned intent and she thought that she did not want to be pitied much more – she had had plenty of that during the last year. Her current talking companion was rude but did not excessively pity her or even make any comments about her skin colour. "Others mutilated me... hey!"

Envy was staring at her feet and now removed the blanket that was covering them. It saw that she was also missing three toes from her right foot and two from the left. "What the heck, toes too. Have you stepped on toe mines or what?" it asked and put the blanket back on her feet.

"No, it was other people and my parents!" she exclaimed frustratedly.

Envy seemed rather amazed and made a disbelieving grin. "Your parents? What? Aren't parents usually supposed to protect and take care of their little brats? Are you trying to pull my leg?" it asked, its tone of voice more challenging than curious, since it could tell that the woman was being serious.

"No! They cut them off so they could sell them!"

"...What?! Sell them?! Why?" it laughed.

The woman was clearly aggravated but had no idea how to react to someone who was laughing at her. "Because people think my body has healing powers!"

"Whaaaaat! This is unbelievable! Ha ha ha! Why would they think that!"

"What?!" snapped the woman. "Can't you see? Are you blind?"

Envy snickered but stared at the woman in a condescending manner. She seemed like she was of another ethnicity and thus was from somewhere else, but that did not mean anything to Envy. "Let's see, you're a twenty-year-old, probably non-Amestrian woman with bad hair, broken skin, weird eyes – why do you even have eye protection like that? Are those glasses? Is your left eye blind?" The woman did not reply right away. "You're some metal shop, ha ha! But okay, that's it. You aren't much to look at. What kind of moron thinks your body would have healing powers? It doesn't even make sense to take body parts to use in alchemy since I'm pretty sure they need to be alive and attached to someone, or at the least very recently removed, in order for it to work."

Envy's last sentence did not make any sense to the woman so she just ignored it. Nevertheless, now she looked truly confused. "...Are you saying that you really don't notice...?"

"Notice what? Spit it out, kid!"

"I'm an albino!"

"A what?"

"..." She had to spend a moment to gather her spilled thoughts. "You don't know what..."

"No! Well, it's an old word for 'white', but so what?"

"I'M WHITE!" she yelled angrily.

"SO WHAT?" responded Envy in a similar but obviously controlled tone. "Just in case you're blind in the other eye too, I'm pretty pale too, even if my hair isn't white."

"But you aren't an albino! Ughhh..." The woman brought her finger-lacking hand to her face and really did not do a good job at covering her face. Envy thought it looked deliciously pitiful. "Where I'm from, people with white skin, white hair and red eyes are albinos. The other people there think that our body parts have magical healing powers."

Envy stared at the woman, obviously entertained and yet seeming hostile. "Okay, that is it. I thought I had seen the pinnacle of stupidity long ago, but the cancer you people call humanity manages to continuously impress me with its completely ludicrous antics. I can't believe you things haven't murdered each other like rabid animals. Magical body parts! Imbeciles!"

"Uh..." For a moment, the woman was confused since Envy's words implied that it was not a human itself. She ignored that too since she was busy agreeing with it about the fact that people who thought albino body parts were magical were idiots.

"What's going on here?" came the voice of the resident doctor as she walked into the room. "I heard yelling."

"Oh, it's okay," replied the white woman. "I and she were arguing but it's fine. You don't need to care about her."

"Her...? Oh, well, okay," said the doctor and glanced around herself before leaving again.

"My parents did care about me in a way, but they were really poor. They thought that my and their lives would be much easier if they had some money, so they sold some of me to get that money. I could tell they didn't want to cut pieces off me, but they did it anyway. Of course that didn't help when I got kidnapped and mutilated and didn't get any money for it. I lost my left eye and right hand that way."

"Ha ha, that is some top grade cruelty." Envy still looked at her disbelievingly. It grabbed her left hand in order to inspect the missing fingers.

"Hey! Let go!" She tried to pull her arm back, but Envy held onto her firmly but fairly peacefully.

Envy could see that the fingers really were cut off clean. There were no other signs of violence and the scar was relatively well healed. It let go of her hand. "You know, I might have not believed you, but the evidence is clear. That kind of injury can't be from violence or an accident."

The woman eyed Envy a little suspiciously, somewhat surprised at its correct inductions. "That's not all. They also cut my hair and some parts off my skin and sold it too. And..."

"What?"

"Nothing. But... you just said that, I mean, the way you ranted about humans implied that you aren't one...?"

"Oh, I'm really not human. I'm a homunculus, an artificial human created with alchemy."

It took a moment for Envy's statement to sink in. "One can create humans with alchemy?!"

"Sort of."

"But that means... could one restore my missing parts with alchemy?"

Envy grinned widely and looked curiously at the woman. "Ha ha! Technically, yes! There is just one problem with that. Restoring your body is something that is called human transmutation, and whenever alchemists perform human transmutation, they have to pay an additional fee. You know what that fee usually is?" it asked keenly. The woman was at a loss for words, so Envy continued. "Body parts! Ha ha ha! You'd be getting your body back only by paying for it with your body!"

The woman looked a little disheartened but shook it off quickly enough. "Hm, how do you tell the difference between a normal and artificial human? You look pretty normal to me."

Envy leaned close to her so that she could see its slitted eyes since she apparently had not noticed them before. Her eyesight was obviously rather bad. "That's just a little detail, though. This is definitive." It then changed its form into that of the woman, missing appendages and all.

"Aah!" The woman startled. "What the – – How did – – Guh..."

"Hehehe. Homunculi aren't just artificial humans, we're much better. Changing my shape is my own ability, and I'm also physically superior and regenerate from any injury." Envy inspected its left hand and looked scornfully at the missing fingers. "This is disgusting." It then grew the missing appendages and let the woman watch as it stretched the image of her complete body. It looked into her eyes and saw a clear feeling form in their gaze. She was jealous. She was incredibly jealous. Envy smirked in satisfaction.

"That is so unfair! I want to be able to regrow my body too!"

"Too bad!" Envy retook its usual form.

The woman fumed quietly for a moment. "What's your name anyway?"

"Envy."

She eyed it a little disbelievingly. "Really?"

"Ha? Well, you're the first one to question my name like this! Yes, really. What's your name? 'Albino'?"

"No! Damnit, when I came here, the soldiers wanted to give me a nickname and call me 'White', because my original name is just too hard to pronounce, but I told them I'd hate to be so defined by that one trait. So they gave me another name. I'm Jade Russet Indigo."

Envy grinned at her, clearly amused. "You're white so they just named you a bunch of other, vivid colours? Ha ha! I can appreciate the irony in that. What's your original name?"

"Klorlil-Mjarktshunmgo Mawadzhrunmgru."

"...What?"

"I admit my own language is a little complex. Also one reason why I wanted a new name was because of course my parents named me 'white'. Klorlil means white."

"No kidding. Stupid language if you ask me!" Envy glanced at the door to the hallway and saw Shrike standing there and looking nervous. "Hm. I'll just leave before he starts shaking."

"Hey, can you come back some other time? I would sure like to talk to you again."

"Huh? Eh, sure, why not."

"I'm here pretty often, for obvious reasons."

"Obviously... Oh well, bye then." Envy turned away and walked out of the room. It and Shrike continued on their way. "Heh heh. Silly girl. What is up with you though? Suddenly you're even surlier and more reserved."

"Uh, I just really dislike her. I hate how she looks. I don't mean the white skin though that's kind of annoying too, but all the missing limbs and stuff... it's just grotesque. She makes my skin crawl."

"Haha! How about this?" After it had checked that there was no one in the corridor, Envy flopped onto the floor and shapeshifted itself to look like Shrike. However, it also modified the image of his body so that he was missing some limbs and sensory organs.

"Urgh!" exclaimed Shrike in disgust as he covered his face with his hands and turned away. "That is just awful!"

"Geez, tell me about it. I'm glad I regenerate." It then changed back to its usual form. "Let's get."


End file.
